A vision of Quarto Oggiaro for 2023, Zarrin Bahrampour Published article in the book: ‘Re-starting from Quarto Oggiaro Milan Toward a new kind of smart city’, Editor: Luca M.F. Fabris, Maggioli Editore, Milan, April 2014. I want to start with the fact that we are living in 21st century or as Wellington E.Webb calls it, the “century of cities”. There is a growing demand for new cities as the existing ones are unable to meet the demands of current and new citizens. The cities need to be changed and it is a scenario more or less the same throughout the world, due to some reasons such as increasing of world population. Apart from that since we live in a competitive world, cities like to be labeled, like “Smart Cities”. So we try to push the limits of economics, social and ecological sustainability, we add landmarks to the cities emphasizing the significant cooperation between residents, to change our cities. This provides a great chance for us as architects or planners who live in this period of time. With regards our workshop, few weeks before the workshop started, I planned to go to Quarto Oggiaro for taking some photos and observing the area. It was my third visit of the neighborhood as I had been there earlier for a Town Planning studio. However the first two times, thanks to a friend of mine, I went there by car. But this time, I was on my own trying to figure out which is the fastest and easiest way to reach that place. After searching I decided to take “passante” (inter urban train) rather than metro or bus. It took 30 minutes from Milan city center to get to the northern border where Quarto Oggiaro train’s station is, actually representing the northern east gate of the neighborhood. From there I started my journey by foot; it was the end of February and the weather was freezing cold. I would like to tell you about my first visit impression. For me who has lived in Milan for the last 6 years, it was little hard to believe that this land is still a part of Milan. Milan, a city that is labeled the Design and Fashion capital, hosting plenty of events and exhibitions, has its own standing out identity, where as Quarto Oggiaro has nothing to do with any of Milan’s features. We as participants of this workshop were supposed to propose some smart solutions to retrofit Quarto Oggiaro. The purpose was to pave the way for a revitalized neighborhood, which could improve the quality of life for its citizens, increase the competitiveness of local economy and there by strengthen the future viability of the city. Also the areas of energy, mobility and urban planning have to be taken into account and there should be integration and interconnection between these areas too. For all these great changes to happen there is a need of incentives. Expo 2015 can be one such incentive for Quarto Oggiaro to make a move, as Expo 2015’s site is located adjacent to this district. Further Politecnico di Milano’s future campus in the south of the neighborhood can bring prospects for gaining a high standard of life to the area. We should also remember the fact that poor infrastructure and unattractiveness itself is one of the primary reasons for Quarto Oggiaro to be changed. We as a team decided to look at the situation from the eyes of residents rather than looking at it from the top, as we architects normally do. Having a vision of the neighborhood in 2023 and basing 1/2
on analysis and observations, to find a way to reach the goals already mentioned we presented our proposal in a narrative way, with the story of daily life of three persons each from different scale: local, metropolitan and global, in Quarto Oggiaro. How these three individuals are getting along with each other and the neighborhood, what do they do from morning till evening, how they go commuting in Quarto Oggiaro, how they afford their daily life, their entertainments, etc. With this short write up, I wanted to give you an insight of what was the scenario when we got to this neighborhood and what we proposed for this neighborhood for 2023. Hope I have succeeded in giving you a brief idea.
2/2